$2.6B needed for Utah to reach per-pupil national education spending average

To match Washington, D.C. — currently the highest per-pupil spending rate in the country — Utah would need more than $8 billion, which would require a 19.8 percent income tax rate and an additional annual household cost of $13,013.

Lawmakers met Wednesday for the first meeting of the Education Task Force. The task force was created during the most recent legislative session to advance long-term planning and goals for public and higher education in the state.

“It kind of goes along with what teachers have been saying for a long time. We’re always trying to get educators to compensate for the failures in the home, hoping to try and get some student achievement out of that.”

Sen. Stuart Reid, R-Ogden

SALT LAKE CITY — To raise Utah's public schools from their status as the lowest funded in terms of per-pupil spending to the national average would require an investment of roughly $2.6 billion, according to data from the Office of the Legislative Fiscal Analyst.

That would require an income tax rate of 9.8 percent, said Jonathan Ball, director of the analysts office. That would cost the average Utah household an additional $4,213 each year.

To match Washington, D.C. — currently the highest per-pupil spending rate in the country — Utah would need more than $8 billion, which would require a 19.8 percent income tax rate and an additional annual household cost of $13,013, he said.

Those figures were included among presentations given to members of the Education Task Force on Wednesday during its inaugural meeting. The task force, composed of both House and Senate leadership and House and Senate Education Committee members, was created during the most recent legislative session with the intent of cultivating a long-term vision and strategic planning for education in the state.

Ball's presentation also looked at Utah's scores on the National Assessment of Education Progress, which is currently the standard for comparing educational outcomes across state lines. In a series of graphs, he showed how the nation's NAEP scores correspond with per-pupil spending, student-to-teacher ratios, single-parent households and other indicators.

"You also have to take into account what you can influence as policymakers," Ball told members of the task force. "Can you influence single-parent households? Probably not."

According to the data from the Office of the Legislative Fiscal Analyst, the link between funding and educational performance is not as statistically significant as social factors like household income and parental degree attainment. Single-parent households were shown to have the most significant relationship with test scores, with Ball saying that for every percentage point of a state's families that are headed by a single parent, NAEP scores decrease by roughly 18 points.

Responding to the presentation, Sen. Stuart Reid, R-Ogden, remarked that educators have long championed the need for parental and family involvement in the education of their children.

"It kind of goes along with what teachers have been saying for a long time," he said. "We’re always trying to get educators to compensate for the failures in the home, hoping to try and get some student achievement out of that."

But Reid also questioned whether familial situations are really the answer for why some states like Massachusetts excel while Utah persists near, or slightly above, the national average for NAEP scores. Other data from the presentation showed, based on the statistical models, that an investment of $1 billion would likely raise Utah by two positions in the NAEP rankings.

"It’s hard for me to accept that it's the familial experience that’s making the difference for their high achievement," Reid said of the assessment scores. "Is there a way to compensate for familial factors that we may or may not be able to control?"

Ball responded that it's not necessarily strong families that account for other states outranking Utah, but rather that it's more likely Utah's low number of single-parent household and high rates of parental degree attainment allow the state to remain competitive despite its traditionally low spending on education.

"The reason we get away with the lowest per-pupil spending in the nation is because of these other factors," he said.

He also said the estimate that a $1 billion investment would result in Utah jumping two spots was based on the assumption that the status quo of existing spending practices continues.

In the private sector providing superior goods and services for less money and
time are necessary for their growth and even survival. In any government run
organization the more money they spend and the more inferior their results the
more they grow.
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4:45 p.m. May 22, 2013

Top comment

christoph

Brigham City, UT

Mountanman: do you include the military in your disregard for government
spending? Policemen? Border patrol? Our military does a fine job; as do
others in public sector.